A Singing Ministry

Star's Concert To Raise Money For Smithfield Church

May 05, 1993|By CYNTHIA BARNES Daily Press

ISLE OF WIGHT — When Benita Sellers first heard Vickie Bowman Winans sing the song, "We Shall Behold Him" over the radio in 1987, she was moved by the gospel recording star's spirit-filled delivery. She was so moved, she vowed to meet Winans some day. To secure that vow, she prayed to God to turn the hands of fate in her favor.

God answered her prayer - plus threw in a bonus.

Benita not only met Winans, but her family has formed a close friendship with the entertainer. The Sellers are the first family of the Mount Tabor Church of God in Christ in Smithfield.

That friendship, combined with Winans' admiration for the church's ministry, will bring Winans to Hampton Roads on May 15 to give a benefit concert. Proceeds from the event will pay off the mortgage on recent additions to the church, says Elder Clarence Sellers, pastor of Mount Tabor.

In the midst of working on a new album, a play and filming commercials for Quaker Oats Co. as their national spokesperson, Winans made time to do the benefit for the small, country church on the back roads of Smithfield.

"I'm very busy these days," Winans says during a telephone interview from her Detroit home. She added that in the midst of all her professional endeavors, she also has a job of being the first lady of Perfecting Church in Detroit, where her husband, Marvin Winans, is pastor.

She admits she does benefit concerts quite frequently because her work is a religious ministry, as well as a business, but her admiration for the church played a role in her decision to give the concert.

"I believe in them, what they're doing, and their ministry," Winans says of Mount Tabor.

The church has about 130 active members and a television ministry on Channel 49 in Newport News.

The artist, who won the public's acclaim last year for her starring role in the musical, "The First Lady," first made personal contact with the Sellers when she came to Hampton Roads in 1991. She was the special guest to a convocation sponsored by Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal organization.

Since Benita was the singer's attendant during that visit, she was responsible for making sure all of her needs were met. They instantly clicked, Benita says, and by the the end of the first day, Winans invited her to spend time at her Detroit home.

"When she invited me to her house, I cried--I was so excited." "I was shocked, surprised, but elated."

Since then, Benita, along with her mother, Norvice G. Sellers and brother, Clarence Sellers Jr., have visited Winans twice in Detroit.

Winans says she immediately fell in love with the Sellers because of their genuineness and sweet personalities.

"I think they're great people," Winans says. "The whole family reaches out to people and is very outgoing. I love them, and I feel that it's real," she says of the Sellers' love and admiration for her as an artist, as well as a person. "You have to respond to that type of love."

Money raised from the concert will pay for the addition of a social hall, classrooms, kitchen and offices to the church. The project cost $135,000, but the church only borrowed $95,000 over 10 years, Seller says. To pay off the mortgage, the church will have to raise about $57,000 through pledges and ticket sales , but several members have pledged as much as $1,000 toward the project. The church hopes to pay off the mortgage so it can expand its television ministry, Sellers says.

"I feel great because everything is highly charged," Seller says. "People are motivated and all of the evidence points to us burning the mortgage."

At the concert, Winans says she will sing a variety of contemporary and traditional gospel.

Winans is related by marriage to the popular gospel singing groups, "The Winans" and "Bebe and CeCe Winans."

In 1985, she signed with Light Records and later released the album, "Be Encouraged." Another album "Total Victory," was released in 1988 and her most recent album, "The Lady" followed in 1991.

She got her first major theater role in the Broadway musical, "Don't Get God Started." In the musical, "The First Lady," she stared opposite Clifton Davis, and later Louis Price.

She is working on a play she wrote, "Torn Between Two Worlds" and an album that will feature contemporary and traditional gospel music.

* The benefit dinner-concert will be held at 6 p.m. on May 15 at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Hampton, 1815 W. Mercury Blvd. A reception will begin at 5 p.m. and a full-course dinner will be served prior to the concert. Cost is $50. To make reservations, call 838-7625.